FIG. 1 depicts an air-bearing surface (ABS) view of a conventional read transducer 10. The conventional read transducer 10 includes shields 12 and 20, sensor 14 and magnetic bias structures 16. The read sensor 14 is typically a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensor or tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) sensor. The read sensor 14 includes an antiferromagnetic (AFM) layer, a pinned layer, a nonmagnetic spacer layer, and a free layer. Also shown is a capping layer. In addition, seed layer(s) may be used. The free layer has a magnetization sensitive to an external magnetic field. Thus, the free layer functions as a sensor layer for the magnetoresistive sensor 14. The magnetic bias structures 16 may be hard bias structures or soft bias structures 16. These magnetic bias structures are used to magnetically bias the sensor layer of the sensor 14.
Although the conventional transducer 10 functions, there are drawbacks. In particular, the magnetic moment of the shield 20 may be unstable. For example, there may be multiple magnetic domains within the shield 20. Movement of domain walls and other changes to the magnetic moment of the shield 20 may introduce noise or otherwise adversely affect performance of the conventional read transducer 10.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving the performance of a magnetic recording read transducer.